I’ve never really fit a title. And maybe that’s the point…

Scott Shirbin designs for planetary change at the intersection of transition design, civic imagination, and more-than-human governance.

His practice moves between systems thinking, public design, and storytelling – helping communities reorganise how they govern, collaborate, and care, especially in times of disruption, decentralisation, or transition. Born in Australia and shaped by London, Lisbon, and Mexico City, Scott navigates the space between institutions, ecosystems and social movements. He builds civic tools, participatory frameworks, governance prototypes and cultural rituals – small, deliberate experiments in what might come next.

Scott is currently based in Eora (Sydney), where he is founding The Mutiny Bureau – a studio for public space experiments, systems prototyping, and post-institutional futures. Projects include Car-Free Sundays Sydney (reframing streets as cultural commons), The Decision Wheel (a governance tool for collective agency) and a rooftop farm governance experiment exploring multi-species decision-making. He is also writing a series of zines on collapse, care and democratic renewal, challenging the boundaries of civic imagination.

He believes governance is less about control and more about choreography. He believes imagination is infrastructure. He believes that endings deserve as much design as beginnings.

Most of all, he trusts bikes. They’ve carried him through cities and systems. A tool of freedom, rhythm, and civic repair. Scott founded Queers on Wheels (London), and regularly organises group-rides and work in bike kitchens.

Always relational. Always unfinished. Always more-than-human.

Scott uses questions like tools, and designs like compost: slow, cyclical, full of life.

Experience Snapshot

Each role has been a laboratory. For designing systems, convening change, and learning how institutions might become more human. A one-page CV if you want to know more.